Legal "copy" of XP?

Tesla · 21 Mar 2006 at 21:10

Hiya chaps,

Can I legally obtain a Win XP Home disc WITHOUT licence.

The reason I ask is that I am finding my business is doing more and more PC repairs so I have just bought a few things which makes repairing them much easier.

Almost all shop-bought PC's have the licence key sticker stuck on the side, also, most customers havbe misplaced their restore or original discs. I assume that sticker is their licence to use Win XP Home aswell? Hence needing a disc I can use with any of my customers licence keys.

If this is not possible then please advise on the best alternative.

Regards,

Chris

GM@N · 21 Mar 2006 at 21:55

Yes you can buy them I think they are called 'windows media kits'. From what others have said on here the stickers on the side are linked to the disk that came with the PC and will not install without it. However i have yet to experience this myself.

ns400r · 21 Mar 2006 at 22:24

The sticker is linked to ANY cd with the same type of Windows on it. i.e. Windows XP Home OEM. So if every PC you repaired used the same type of Windows you could use 1 C for all of them and just enter the customers number when needed.

Burnsy2023 · 21 Mar 2006 at 22:37

GM@N said:
Yes you can buy them I think they are called 'windows media kits'. From what others have said on here the stickers on the side are linked to the disk that came with the PC and will not install without it. However i have yet to experience this myself.

If you have a licence for Windows, it really doesn't matter if you have a media set from MS. However, they do help with the CD keys.

Some large OEMs like Dell and HP have thier own pools of CD keys which are linked to their release of media, so it is useful. Therefore not any OEM disk will work with that pool od CD keys. The media sets are not expensive either.

Burnsy